Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1892 — BOGUS WAGE ADVANCE [ARTICLE]

BOGUS WAGE ADVANCE

Caknegie’s four-in-hand—Frick, Pinkerton, Harrison and Reid. Contractors for dirty work will please put in their bids with Thomas H. Carter. Granny Blair is now a candidate Tor Congress. Congress has a hard time of it. Mr. Tom Platt still inclines to organize an expedition to the Harrison pole. Tom Reed’s approval of Tom Reed’s personally conducted Congress te without reservation or remorse. The passengers in the Republican coach do not seem to be much impressed with Mr. Harrison as a whip. Whitelaw Reid warns the Republicans against over-confidence. This is like warning a man against a moon-stroke. There is one block in New York which houses 3,500 people. And just to think of Dudley wasting his time on blocks of five. If the McKinley bill grew the great crops, then it produced the labor riots, floods, cyclones, railroad wrecks, and lake disasters. Several years ago Mr. Carnegie wrote a book called “Triumphant Democracy. " After the November election he can pose as a prophet.

“Don’t be overconfident,” says Mr. "Whitelaw Reid. “Who said we were overconfident?” say Messrs. Blaine, Platt, Quay, Dudley, Clarkson, Foraker and Farwell. The only increase of wages yet ascribed to the McKinley law is the high pay given to Pinkerton men. The Carnegie company paid the Pinkertonians $5 a day. According to the New York Tribune “Maj. McKinley has consented to make some speeches in lowa.” There must be some error about this, but the Major may have consented to make the same speech several times. There are 13,000,000 of voters in this country. Each man is paying $lO per year pension grab as a tax. ilustjcp and recognition to the old soldier is a national honor—looting the Treasury for political purposes, a national prime.

The Chicago Inter Ocean always' jpeaks of “Briceville, named after Senator Brice,” and evidently intends It to be understood that he employs convict labor. Senator Brice has repeatedly denounced the statement that he owns any mines where convict labor is employed. Mr. Hatt now—but that’s another story. m rr . The McKinley tax on carpets and carpeting of all kinds is 45 cents a yard and 30 per cent, ad valorem. Under these it is no wonder that the large carpet and upholstery dealers of the country have begun a movement to re-establish a combine. First McKinley, then a trust, is the natural order. It is cause and effect. If it goes on much longer it will have to be stated in. all the text books as a fact of political economy. -

McKinley continues to assert that the foreigner pays the tax. This is how it works: The foreigner makes a coat at a cost of $lO, sends it to this country, pays a duty of $lO on it, and Bells it for, say, sls. By this transaction he loses $5 on every coat of the kind he sells in this country. It is apparent to any one that the moment he sells it for more than S2O, the consumer pays the tax. Now which is the more reasonable inference, that the foreigner sells everything at a loss, or that McKinley is .Simply telling an untruth? An administration organ says that In electing Harrison the American people “declared with all the emphasis at their command that they approved of protection with all their heart.” Oh, no! Mr, Harrison did not receive as many votes by nearly 100,000 as were cast for Grover Cleveland, the tariff reformer. And with tile emphasis of 1,300,000 majority the peoplo declared at the very next election after the McKinley bill was passed that (hey did not approve of this sort of high and trust-creating

protection. It is better to be acciu rate. It may not be generally remembered, but the Republicans of Pennsylvania have not forgotten it, that in the year 1877, after the great Pittsburg riots, Pennsylvania went Democratic. The officers chosen were of secondary importance, but the result was very suggestive and the lesson has not been lost. Hence their frantic efforts to produce the impression that these labor troubles have no bearing on political questions.

It is gradually dawning upon the minds of a good many people that the smooth-faced William McKinley is a prize-package fraud. The St. Louis Republic places side by side two recent utterances of his which will bear contrasting. In Pennsylvania McKinley says: “The tariff puts up the price of iron and increases wages correspondingly.” In Nebraska he says: “The tariff cheapens iron and gives the farmers cheap plows and other farm machinery.”

The New York Tribune has unearthed the fact that the American Tariff League has been evading the postal laws by disseminating through the mails as second-class matter a campaign pamphlet, “Protection and Reciprocity,” which, of course, is not entitled to distribution by mail at newspaper rates. Some of the strict constructionists in Congress who were outraged lately at the idea of Henry George’s book, “Protection or Free Trade,” being smuggled in installments into the Congressional Record will doubtless be equally zealous to reprehend this new phase of smug* (fling.

St. Louis Republic: The private farm and home debt of Illinois, exclusive of debt on open account; exclusive of debt on unsecured note; exclusive of debt secured by the deposit of personal collateral; exclusive of debt secured by chattel mortgage; exclusive of the debt of railroads; exclusive of the debt secured by mortgage on the property of corporations; exclusive of town, county, city and State debts, averages SIOO on the head of every man, woman and child in the State. This is SSOO a family, and at 10 per cent, it means an average annual interest tax of SSO a family. These are not “Democratic campaign figures.” They are the figures of the Porter census, which reduced the total of Illinois farm and home debt as far as it cculd. And all this has come about in Illinois with the Republican party in control both at Washington and Springfield.

Whitelaw Reid has a most remarkable knack of profiting by the misfortunes of others. He picked up the New York Tribune, which had been created by Horace Greeley, and proceeded without compunction to freeze Greeley out of it. After matrimony had made him cich and he needed a fashionable town house in which to maintain the state proper for a Republican millionaire he happily secured at a great bargain the magnificent residence on Madison avenue built by Henry Villard. Mr. Villard had met with adversity before his house was completed, and Mr. Reid was in at the death and took Jhe prize. Casting about him for a country house he noticed the spacious castle of Ophir Farm, owned by poor Ben Halliday, then financially embarrassed. Ophir Farm is now adde to Mr. Reid’s other trophies of fishing expeditions in bankrupt pools. Now he is in the possession of a Vice Presidential nomination which every consideration of political decency demanded should have been tendered to Vice President Morton. Nevertheless, Morton will appear in the history of his party as the last of its Vice Presidents.

Cleveland, In his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for President, said: “Never has a great party, intent upon the promotion of right and justice, had better incentive for effort than is now presented to us. Turning our eyes to the plain people of the land, we see them burdened as consumers with a tariff system that unjustly and relentlessly demands from them, in the purchase of the necessaries and comforts of life, an amount scarcely met by the wages of hard and steady toil, while the exactions thus wrung from them build up and Increase the fortunes of those for whose benefit the injustice is perpetuated. We see the farmer listening to a delusive story that fills his mind with advantage, while his pocket Is robbed by the stealthy hand of high protection. Our workingmen are still told the tale, oft repeated, in spite of its demonstrated falsity, that the existing protective tariff is a boon to them, and that, under its beneficent operation, their wages must increase—while, as they listen, scenes are enacted in the very abiding place of high protection that mock the hopes of toil and attest the tender mercy the workingman receives from those made selfish and sordid by unjust governmental favors. We oppose earnestly and stubbornly the theory upon which our opponents seek to justify and uphold tariff laws. ”

M’KIN LEY ISM IS COMPLETELY BROKEN DOWN. HUtory of the Smell Llat of Alleged Wage Advance* That Now Supplle* Two Partie* with Campaign Material—Foot* in Regard to Each Ca*e. Foote That Are Foot*. Tbe Hon. John DeWitt Warner, of the Reform Club, has completed his investigation of the twenty-eight cases where, according to the Amerioan Economist and other high tariff authorities, wages have been advanced in protected industries since October, 1890. Trustworthy examiners were sent to each plaoe to get the facts. Their reports were of such a nature that the Reform Club has published them as a number of TarifT Reform, and the New York Weekly World of August 25 gave them a full page. It will be remembered that the Reform Club had prepared and published In the World and in Tariff Reform a list of nearly 500 wage-reduotions and lockouts in proteoted industries since the McKinley act took effect. The protectionists who had promised higher wages with the McKinley bill and had been shouting higher wages ever since, began to get uneasy because they could not tell anxious inquirers exactly where wage advances had ocourred. They began to search, feeling confident that wages must have advanced in many of the thousands of protected mills in this country. They sent out clroulars to manufacturers asking them to report the per cent, that wages had been advanced in their mills since October,' 1890. In this way and in other ways they got together what purported to be a list of wage advances. Apparently it did not occur to the American Economist editor (or if he did he was so anxious to publish the list that he did not consider the consequence of an exposure) that the manufacturers-might misstate facts —perhaps to get free advertising, or, it may be, to attract laborers to their mills. The twenty-eight cases of “wage advances" were published with a flourish in the American Economist. Republican papers were not slow in copying the list. At last McKinley had been vindicated, and the “free-trade liars" silenced. But the one great fault with the list was that it was short; indeed, it was its brevity that betrayed it in more ways than one. It not only exposed the meager results of great promises, but it offered inducements to investigation which a formidable list would have precluded. If the protoctionists were attempting a game of bluff they should have made a list of several hundred advances —so many that it would be a very big and very expensive piece of work to make inquiry in regard to all. But twenty-eight cases were just enough to challenge Investigation. If a few of them could be shown to be incorrect the already small list would be diminished so that even Republican editors would be Ashamed to publish it. It was not expected by Mr. Warner, when he began the investigation, that the whole list was a fraud and that he would in the majority of oases get wage reductions for his already long list. The following are the briefest possible summaries of the list, the quotations being from the American Economist’s list of “examples of wages advanced under the McKinley tariff, showing increased per cent:” “Haskell A Baker Car Company, Michigan City, Ind., 5 per cent.” Wagos were reduced from 12J to 25 cents per day in 1889 and restored 12i cents in May, 1890. No change since the McKinley act took effect. “2. Wooster A. Stoddard, Walden, N.\T., 5 percent.” Strike in May, 1892. caused a readjustment of wages by which some got more and others got less —total effect not certain.

“3. Camden Woolen Company, Camden, Me., 10 per cent.” Four looms got a raise because they changed to heavier work weavers’ earnings were not increased. “4. Rider Engine Company, Walden, N. Y., 5 per cent.” No advances In ten years—but reductions of 10 and 12J per cent, since 1884. “Hawthorne Mills Company, Glonnville, Conn., 15 per cent.” One man advanced from $1.15 to $1.25 in July, 1892, and nearly all of the 200 employes reduced from 10 to 20 per cent, since 1890. “6. Alfred Dolge, Dolgeville, N. Y., 20 per cent,” Alfred Dolge has for years had a system of encouraging employes to work for little and expect more, by advancing the wages of twenty or twenty-five of his more Industrious workmen a shilling at the end of the year. In February, 1891, forty or fifty this advance, but in February, f 892, po g,<jvance gecurrjdj and many employes were disappointed, Numerous reductions eaoh year fully offset tnesS bunched and widely heralded advances. “7. Lake Superior Lumber Company, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., 15 per cent.” No advance at all was made in this Sanlng mill—yeport was purely for poical reasons. “8. J. C. Bass, Boxboro, N. C., 25 per cent."

The two or three employes of this grist and saw mill never got less wages than now. The report furnished amusement for neighbors. “9. H. L, Chapman, White Pigeon, Micb. ; lj> pqr cent" One of the two employes here Is an apprentice and had his Wages advanced to 50 cents day from 26 cents. “10. Baltimore A Ohio Railroad Company, Grafton, W. Va., 20 per cent.” No advances here, but the few that have not been discharged by closing of foundries, etc., have had their wages reduced in the last year from $2.25 to $1.57.

“11. Wilkins & Close, Mayfield, N. Y., 15 to 25 per cent. ” Mr. Wilkins says the report is false, as only the usual advancos to new hands have occurred. “12. Close & Christie, Mayfield, N. Y., 15 to 25 per cent. ” Same situation as No. 11. “13. Canastota Knife Company, Canastota, N. Y„ 10 per cent. In 1891, by threatening to strike the employes got back about 10 per cent of the 2o per cent, reduction made four or five years ago. *l4. New York Knife Company, Walden, N. Y., 10 per cent.” In April and in June, 1892, about twothirds of the workers, by having a union and by threatening to strike, received advances of from 7 s to 10 per cent A general reduction of 10 per cent occurred in 1885, which the company promised to replace if Harrison was elected. “15. Thomaston K-.ife Company, Thomaston, Conn., 10 ffer cent” Same situation as at No. 13. 16. W. F. Epperson, Ladoga, Ind., 10 per cent.” Mr. Epperson’s reply to the Republican letter sent him is being widely circulated by Demorats. Instead of advancing wages, he has had to shut down his heading factory part of the time. “17. Pittsburg Reduction Company, Pittsburg, Pa., 10 percent” The proprietor knew of no advances, and was surprised that such a report was made. “18. Sultan Buggy and Carriage Company, White Pigeon, Mich., 10 percent.” No advancos, but more work for the same pay.

“19. B. Howitzer, Chaseburg, Wls. ( 10 per cent." Chaseburg has 50 inhabitants. No Howitzer there. “20. Enterprise Manufacturing Company, Manheim, Pa., 30 per cent. The girls making socks and overalls at $2.50 to $3 a week became dissatisfied and were irregular at work. The firm advanded prices from 35 to 45 cents and from 11 to 15 cents per dozen. “21. Shaw Stooklng Company, Lowell, Mass., 10 per cent." Tho reduction by law of working hours from sixty to fifty-eight caused no reduotion of wages of day laborers but piece workers may earn less. “22. King's County Knitting Company, Brooklyn, N. Y., 5 per cent." Tho ten or fifteen employes know of no advance. “23. Western Knitting Mills, Rochester, Mich., 15 per cent." Four apprentices were advanced. Mapy others of tho 100 employee received reductions of from 16 to 19i cents per dozen. “24. Western Knitting Mills, Detroit, Mich., 15 per cent.” Wagos have not changed for eight years. “26. Langley & David, Orlskany Falls, N. Y., 25 to 50 oents-a day.” Two foremen and one apprentice advanced slightly; six weavers and one finisher reduced from 11 to 16 per cent.; wages of other five employes unchanged. “26. William Carter A Co., Highlandsyille, Mass., 15 to 60 cents a day.” Five of ninety employes were advanced to prevent them from returning to England. A few other changes In the mills were made because new machines were introduced. “27. McCormick A Co., Harrisburg,

Pa., 15 to 50 cents n day.” Forty laborers whoso wages were reduced from $1.20 to sl.lO last fall had the ten cents restored in June. Forty puddlers on Feb. 15, 1892, were reduoed from $4 to $3.50 per ton. Eighty-five were thrown out in March, 1892, by the closing of one furnace. “28. He (John DeWitt Warner) should not forget the 25,000 employes In the Full River cotton mills who had their wages increased on July 11." Tho legal change of hours from 60 to 58 per week caused no reduction of wages, because the employes were contemplating a strike to get back a reduction of 10 per cent, in 1884.